My husband's reaction was disbelief, mainly because of the experiences we had had with MS (my two closest friends had been diagnosed with MS for years and we pretty much went through quite an ordeal with each of them); we couldn't believe MS would affect us in such a way. It's been 3 months since diagnosis and we're still dealing with waves of emotions over it.

Whenever they told me that it was Devic's NMO, I kept it together on the surface, but inside I was falling apart. I wasn't naive, and knew full well what the disease was likely to do to me.

You know it's funny, but in the Discovery TV show, they have me crying and frantic---but that really wasn't the case at all.

I had only three questions for my neuro: 1. Can you keep me from going permanently blind? 2. Can you keep me on my feet? And 3. Can you keep me alive? He was very honest with me and told me that there were no guarantees, but that he would do everything medically possible.

On the surface, I was fine---no tears or histrionics, but inside the fear detonated like a hydrogen bomb.

Gracie

LarryLDN, PERFECT!!! (I'll be using this one in the future for something!)

my first reaction was relief...i was feeling so horrible and was told it was "all in my head" so much and had to wait 6 months for the official diagnosis...i was like "ok we know what we're dealing with...prescribe me something and i'll be on my way"
but since then i've gotten really upset sometimes...mostly the times where i'm experiencing a relapse or a lot of pain ( i don't think straight)
it really hit me when i was retired from the military because i loved my job....but now i think i'm getting used to it...but who knows tomorrow mr. hyde might come out :) hehe

My first reaction was relief as well, because I was in so much pain, three neuros said that nothing is wrong with me, just a mild scoliosis... Then I was in denial for about a year and when it finally hit me (after a bad relapse) I cried for two weeks. Now, Im sometimes good, sometimes bad...

I'm with Joey, my fist reaction was also relief. Now I cold actualy put a name on this thing. Now after 2 and a half years, I thought I had gotte over being mad or depressed, what is scary is sometimes out of the blue a new "feeling" comes on, like the hug and a swollen head feeling. I had recently had another MRI, this time of my neck and thorasic spine, no lesions, but a bulging disc that may be causing my arms and hands to tingle and weaken, not to mention the neck aches. Just another "thing" to deal with. I have always been a tough guy, but there are times I want to just sob like a baby, but then I think what will it help.

Thats funny because my Doctor called me at work and told me that I have MS,I just broke down in tears,and the first person that I was thinking about was Richard Pryor,that was the only person that I knew about that had MS at the time,and then there was my daughter what would happen to me,what about her?I was just so lost,and not really knowing anything about really scare me.When I went back to my Doctor I told him that I wanted to fight him(really)my boyfriend was with me at the time and he had to hold me back from the Doctor,after I had calm down I asked him why would he call me at work with news like that,he said that if he would have said that we needed to talk,that I would have really had a fit.that was 6yrs ago and a have leared so much about MS now that I am OK about it(but I still do not like it)smile

My first reaction was relief...I had worried that it might be ALS (a lot of the same early symptoms, I thought). Then as time went on I began to grieve the loss of some of my favorite activities, like hiking with my family or playing football and baseball with my son. I was diagnosed in July of '06. My neurologist at the time was very good and had an efficient but not unkind way of telling me his diagnosis. Since then I've gone through everything from anger to depression and sadness to level of acceptance mixed with fighting-back. And I started reading everything I could find on this strange and wonderful thing called MS!

"tcr1962", I thought I was the only person who referred to MS as "strange and wonderful". I tend to remove myself from the equation when I consider the physiology involved with MS. It REALLY is a fascinating disorder! If you can get past the "sx's" happening to "you". :o) (I also think that's why I haven't had all the typical mix of emotions - I look at this as an interesting, empiracle science experiment):o)-I'm a geek!

Sorry, that should be "empira(cal)" not "cle" ....I'm also anal-retentive :o)

My first reaction was Fear. I burst into tears and in a few seconds I was hysterical. I was sooooooooooooooo ignored all of these years and always wondered how the hell I was going to keep living in all this pain and frustration and anxiety panic foggy eyes foggy brain and all the upteen other things. I thought I just wanted to die. Cause I feel so badly now I will get worse (cause this is a progressive disease) I just cant imagine getting worse that scares me. My husbands jaw was on the floor. I think at that time MAYBE he was starting to doubt me too. (how can sombody have so much pain and the docs say nothing is wrong) he is so positive and upbeat and trying to help me the best he can. I just found out last week That I have MS and I am in such a serious depression, it is not good. Somtimes I feel relief cause now I know it is not all in my head. And we now know what the enemy is. I have been told i am a hypocondiraic since I was in highschool. this week I feel more power to make a change. So I am looking at diet and see if there is somthing i am doing wrong there. I have a MRI today at 2 in the hustle and bustle of all those tests that one got forgot. She said we did 6 months of testing in 3 weeks. Sombody actually took me serious. sigh.

I was relieved to know I did'nt have Alzheimers, or a brain tumor......................then I bawled my eyes out for days, with worry............ I was so scared.

I simply was crushed, mixed up, very depressed, and didn't know how to handle everything that was going on....relapse after relapse. Lost my job...blah, blah, blah....but somehow made it through.

So glad this did not happen to you.

to begin with, i thought that i'd just injured my back, and kept seeing orthopaedic doc's (by the way, i'm a brit, hence the spelling, it also means that most of my treatment/diagnosis was via the national health service). i finally went for a private consultation (ortho again) going private was the only was i could get myself a thorough assessment... this doc said 'this looks like a neurological problem' i said 'what, you mean like, multiple sclerosis or something...?) the only neuro condition i could think of, off the top of my head. he said ' oh i doubt its anything that bad!'. he sent me for an mri in a higher resolution machine, when i returned to him, there was a delay, while his senior nurse was located. when i finally saw them she sat right next to me, i thought, 'oh, crap...!' and the doctor said the famous last words...'it looks as if you have ms'. i don't remember much after that until i started to leave, then i burst into tears as i wobbled my way out.

i did find that over the next six months i became so used to stopping myself from crying, that i ended up having panic attacks for a few weeks until someone pointed out that i wasn't getting it out of my system enough. as soon as i'd had a few proper crying sessions, i started getting back to the real me. so, now i'm just me again, i just happen to be ME + MS.

best wishes to all with this pain in the bum condition!

wendy

WOW> I am still waiting for my reaction. My wife and I were "ohhh no wonder you were doing tthat" Now we have the answer. 2 months later, I had a heart attrack. I am still waiting for my reaction on that too!!!!> They arre speed bumps not roadblocks. LIfe goes on.